Witnessing history/embodying testimony: gender and memory in post‐apartheid South Africa

Abstract

This paper explores two very different contexts in South Africa where witnessing and secondary witnessing have a special impact on the nature of national memorialization: women's narrative accounts of their prison experiences; and therapeutic initiatives around HIV/AIDS. It asks whether experiences related through testimony of one kind or another can be embodied in forms which might enable access for non‐participants, especially since the power of witnessing relies so heavily on qualities of voice and performance. What would be an adequate and relevant form which might translate personal trauma into a publicly accessible and affective monument or memorial? And if, unlike most of the public commemorative initiatives in South Africa since 1994, we take gender into consideration, is there anything particular about aspects of women's experience that might influence such a decision? Is it possible for us as non‐participants to adopt an ethical viewing position in relation to this material which takes on board both Susan Sontag's caution about voyeurism and Gayatri Spivak's insistence on the importance of listening without engaging in a necessarily narcissistic empathy that might obliterate the speaker's right to an incommensurable experience? Résumé L’article étudie deux contextes très différents en Afrique du Sud, dans lesquels le témoignage et le témoignage secondaire ont un effet spécifique sur la nature de la mise en mémoire nationale : les récits de prison faits par des femmes et les initiatives thérapeutiques contre le VIH et le SIDA. L’auteure se demande s’il est possible de donner aux expériences reliées par l’un ou l’autre type de témoignage une forme qui les rendrait accessibles à ceux qui n’y ont pas été impliqués, d’autant plus que la puissance du témoignage doit beaucoup aux qualités de la voix et de la performance. Quelle forme pourrait être adéquate et pertinente pour traduire le traumatisme personnel en mémorial affectif accessible à tous ? Si, contrairement à la plupart des commémorations publiques en Afrique du Sud depuis 1994, on prend le sexe en compte, y a‐t‐il quelque chose de particulier dans l’expérience des femmes qui pourrait influer sur cette décision ? Est‐il possible que ceux qui n’ont pas été impliqués adoptent une position de spectateurs éthiques par rapport à ce qui est présenté, en intégrant à la fois la mise en garde contre le voyeurisme de Susan Sontag et l’insistance de Gayatri Spivak sur l’importance d’écouter sans s’engager dans une empathie nécessairement narcissique, qui pourrait occulter le droit du narrateur à une expérience sans commune mesure avec celle des autres ?

Gendered Representations of Apartheid: The Women’s Jail Museum at Constitution Hill

“…Taken together, these visual texts suggest that the Women's Jail is a site of transformation, where women who were once imprisoned can now shape the memory of their experiences and of their oppression. As a site that former prisoners have reclaimed, the museum has been commended for its unique creation of exhibits that include the voices, concerns, and objects of the former detainees (Coombes 2011;McAlister 2013). Furthermore, this site holds a noteworthy place within the evolution of museums to violence and oppression because of its relationship specifically to women's persecution and suffering under regimes of terror.…”

“…From there they could see and smell the meals that the other prisoners received.' While this exhibit emphasizes deprivation of food as discussed by Coombes (2011), it also conveys the types of humiliation that women suffered at the hands of a punitive penal system. Through the imagery of the buckets and the texts that describe their use as an object of punishment, the visitor is reminded of how the targeted women were forced to stand apart from, but in full view, of other prisoners who were eating.…”

“…A number of previous studies, however, have investigated the collective memory of women prisoners as the memory of incarceration is memorialized at the Women's Jail. In this regard, prior research found that the museum is distinct from other apartheid museums in both its curatorial process and its exhibits (Coombes 2011;McAlister 2013). McAlister thus states 'I find the personal and fragmented objects assembled in the Women's Jail to be the inverse of the conventionally ''comprehensive '' and ''linear'' museum collections' (2013: 7).…”

“…Because of its focus on women in the apartheid struggle, this museum holds a unique place in South African memorial culture, highlighting the treatment of women prisoners and the importance of women as social actors in movements for social change. While women were actively involved in the struggle against the apartheid regime, including being jailed and tortured for their opposition, the majority of studies analyzing museums and memorials in South Africa include little reference to women's roles or the types of gendered violence to which women were subjected (Coombes 2003(Coombes , 2011McAlister 2013;Miller 2011).…”

“…McAlister thus states 'I find the personal and fragmented objects assembled in the Women's Jail to be the inverse of the conventionally ''comprehensive '' and ''linear'' museum collections' (2013: 7). Further, in discussing the exhibits in the museum, previous researchers have focused on the motifs of women's degradation that the museum highlights (Coombes 2011: McAlister 2013 Building on the existing research on the Women's Jail, our study considers the varied and diverse ways in which Black women are remembered in the memorial space and the gendered representations that illuminate Black women's dehumanization under apartheid. Based on extensive field work at the museum site, the findings of the research suggest four motifs of gendered memory that have yet to be fully elaborated in the existing work on the women's musuem on Constitution Hill.…”